KARACHI: Despite aggressive foreign selling, the stock market on Wednesday rallied further higher on the back of improved economic numbers following a much-anticipated rate cut and scheduling of an IMF board meeting on Pakistan’s bailout, tossing the KSE 100 index above 80,000 amid low volume.

Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the market surged on speculations ahead of the IMF executive board meeting on Sept 25 to approve a $7bn new Extended Fund Facility amid rising remittances, exports and falling trade deficit.

He added that the Asian Development Bank’s affirmation of a $2bn annual concessional loan till 2027 and a stable rupee also contributed to a robust performance.

In its review, Topline Securities Ltd said the KSE index opened on a positive note as broad-based buying was observed in blue-chip stocks, where heavyweights such as Mari Petroleum, Engro Ferti­liser, United Bank, Meezan Bank and Fauji Fertiliser, posted significant gains, collectively contributing 682-point rise.

Pioneer Cement decl­ared its FY24 result, where the company posted earnings per share of Rs22.79 along with a cash dividend of Rs10 per share.

As a result, the index hit an intraday high of 80,587.44 and a low of 79,798.75. However, it clo­sed the session at 80,461.34 after adding 970.20 points or 1.22pc day-on-day.

The trading volume was squeezed by over a quarter to 400.19 million shares, while the traded value surged by 78.46pc to Rs15.90bn day-on-day.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included WorldCall Tele­com (32.22m shares), TRG Pakistan (22.08m sha­res), Pace Pakistan (19.64m shares), Loads Ltd (12.34m shares) and First Capital Securities (11.95m shares).

The shares registering the most significant incre­ases in their prices in absolute terms were Sapp­hire Textile (Rs57.88), Mari Petro­leum (Rs41.59), Pak­is­tan Engineering Works Ltd (Rs35.46), Pakistan Services (Rs30.52) and Premium Textile (Rs25.89).

The companies that suffered major losses in their share prices in absolute terms were Unilever Foods (Rs182.77), Sapphire Fibres (Rs121.42), Hoechst Pakistan (Rs79.16), Nestle Pakistan (Rs78.39) and Rafhan Maize (Rs72.50).

Foreign investors rema­ined net sellers as they sold shares worth $4.31m.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2024